Observation #3

We arrived today at 8:35 am to a very hectic classroom. We watched the chaos as about five students had to leave the classroom for various pullout programs. Mr. F. has often expressed his frustration with these early-morning pullout programs because the students have to leave during the initial group time that he loves to be reserved for fostering classroom unity as well as the completion of the mystery poem which he swears by. It made me realize how flexible I will need to be in the school system in abiding by and upholding state standards.

Mr. F. suggested that we administer our pretest right away. He told us that we would have to accommodate for the various students not being there but to understand that we could just give them the pretest later. Mr. F. had the students sit at their desks quietly and told them that we had something really fun to do with them. Catherine R. and I immediately panicked because, no, our pretest was not going to be fun for them. We realized that the students expect from us lessons about gooey Oobleck substances that are going to absolutely astound scientists or a dramatic interpretation of Caps for Sale where they all get to dance around on the “stage” in the front of the classroom. We quickly corrected Mr. F. so that they students wouldn’t get their hopes up.

I started by telling the students that we were so excited to be back with their class because we are learning how to teach and they actually have a lot to teach us. I filled them in that we are going to be starting our unit once we get back from spring break but we first need to find out what they already know about ancient Egypt. I told them that they could really help us out by filling out the worksheet that we were about to pass out, but not to worry because it is not going to be graded. We passed out the worksheet and immediately decided to go over the front page first and then have the students complete the four multiple choice questions at the same time before we moved on. We went question by question and told the students to answer themselves. Mr. F. added that it will not help Miss Brown and Miss Robinson if they put down their classmates’ answers on their page. As far as I could tell, the students were relatively quiet. We then had the students turn to the back where I explained the last two questions—drawing a picture of an Egyptian building and the writing about what life would be like for a boy or a girl living in ancient Egypt. These second graders continue to impress me. It is very obvious that they are indeed second graders but I am amazed at how much a lot of them are writing and how much a lot of them know about subjects like ancient Egypt. Are the UVA professors sitting around at home reading encyclopedias with their children? One student wrote about the slaves in ancient Egypt who were dressed in rags when the rich men were dressed in fancy clothes and jewels. However, the discrepancy between students at this elementary school is still very apparent. One of the pull-out students who Catherine R. administered the test to later wrote about Niagra Falls being in ancient Egypt. I was impressed she knew about Niagra Falls but very clear that she would have a lot to learn in our unit.

We also passed out an “Interest Survey” to the students with eight or so topics about ancient Egypt on it. We instructed them to pick their top two topics that they would like to learn about in out unit. Their answers were overwhelmingly pyramids and mummies. This gave us a better idea not of the only topics that we should cover but maybe where we should start with our instruction. I want to start with what students want to learn about, captivate their attention, then teach them about the many facets of ancient Egypt.